ministarcraft 40k
by Boromonokli
Summary: In the near future of the 21th century, there are protoss in Dave's garden. But soon they have to cope with the entire 40kToyhammer army dropped inside the living room, and there are more visitors than what meets the eye.
1. Ch1 Humble Beginnings

This is the 21th century.

And there is only boredom.

But it is to reprieve

in an eternal war.

I grabbed the brake, then let the bicycle use the last remains of my momentum to park it below the outer roof of the tool shed.

"Welcome Hierarch Dave. We hope your journey was successful." - sounded the familiar voice in my head.

"oh. hi Aldaris. Yes I got your mineral water." - I answered with a chuckle.

At that point I opened the tool shed to see the entire protoss base. It was a beautiful sight. The natural coloring of wood and stone was replaced with gleaming glass and a strange molded material that covered their buildings. But even stranger was that every footsoldier of the Khala was not bigger than an inch, and their vehicles and weapons were also downscaled both in size and in power. So nothing short of the Carriers' glassing beams and the Mothership's Purification beam could do real harm in people, or so I thought.

"Your base is under attack" - Exclaimed the protoss Dark Templar who just teleported onto my shoulder. - "Should we prepare a strike force?".

"Just in case of emergency." - I heard the gunfire and it didn't sound like it was doing too much. "I'll see to these attackers." - Nevertheless I didn't want to go in without any form of backup, so I agreed to fill in a Freighter Class carrier with a Zealot-Stalker-Templar force and attached two void rays and two phoenixes for added protection. They handed me the safety pylon, which I was to plant if I was in deep trouble, so they could have a stable warp field to teleport into.

Now the Freighter Class was my modification to the standard carrier model, where they replaced the big gun with modules built to allow for many warriors and robots to embark or disembark. This also carried a warp prism for both as a smaller strike transport, and as a way to establish a warp field that can be moved on the fly. Literally.

With a protoss army in my back, my confidence grew, I slowly approached the door. With each step the sound of bullets peppering grew stronger, and soon I could recognize other weapons being discharged. Sharp cracks of displaced and heated air, wooshes of rockets, clashes of blades. I had a bad feeling about this.

And soon the bad feeling turned into something even worse.

"_Watch out, the Mon-keigh comes."_ - Now that was definitely a female voice, and from the wording I could tell that it was an Eldar. Oh crap moment indeed. Now I was rushing the few steps needed to get the door, and a short glance back confirmed that the carrier was airborne.

"This is the Hierarch to all troops. Powerful psionic entities are to be expected in the base. Proceed with extreme caution." - Of course caution didn't apply to a human 65 times their size, so I opened the door and saw something that could best be described as crowning moment of OHCRAP.

Orks were fighting Space marines, Imperial Guard, and Tau joint forces, while chaos space marines wandered seemingly aimlessly, taking potshots at the imperials whenever they could. The eldar were nowhere to be seen, another oh crap problem knowing the eldar. I slowly stepped into the battlefield, my steps missing a running guardsman by scant centimeters. It was his shout that turned all attention to me. Tanks' main guns turning, tracks grinding the awfully battered floor, this gave a great option for chaos to take down a full squad of guardsmen and cripple one of the chimeras. Though their victory was short lasting, as the sisters of battle came on their jump-packs, their fast-attack troops taking out stragglers. But as I was concerned with the chaos troops, I forgot about the tanks.

They were all aiming at me.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't scared, but eleven barrels of hell plus a dozen of lasers and a few lascannons were something to consider unless you were a khorne berserker or a degenerate cultist of nurgle.

"Don't attempt any of your tricks mortal" boomed a voice, definitely space marine, into my head. Oh crap more psionics.

"Correct. I'm Librarian Vasili and you won't get to place that pylon before we get a few shots on you. And trust me those shots are lethal even on this scale." Now that was mean. I hoped my protoss buddies could hear that thought, I was in deep trouble. Well, I should attempt to communicate.

"Umm... Hello. I'm Dave. And you?" - it came up almost as a squeak, definitely not the way to start a good relationship with a bunch of miniature supersoldiers._ "hmm a critical mind..." - mused Vasili _

"I'm Captain Eizak, from the Ultramarines. I guess Vasili introduced himself already." - Oh smurfs. Literal smurfs. I couldn't help but smile. I have to show them that cartoon one day.

"I'm General Ulrich Faust, leader of the joint effort to purge the forces of chaos and the angry orks out of this habitat."

"And do you happen to know something about a guy named Michael?" - Now that did it. They were shocked. I sent a quick psionic message of all clear to the carrier just hovering outside, and it relayed the message to Aldaris, they were preparing to a meeting. Now I was confident that I can talk myself out.

"Yes we do Mon-keigh. How did you know that?" - That sound. Was coming from somewhere above me. Probably from the bookshelves. Or the wooden storage modules they could use as catwalks. There were so many places to hide in there...

"Just a wild guess" - _of course it is from a fanfiction portal on the internet. Full story about 29 chapters and a goddamn awesome read. Vincent must have leaked it._

"uh that was a lot more than what I wanted" - Said Zara with a slightly weaker voice.

"Now, since I know everybody, you know me, how about putting those guns away?"

**AN:Okay that was it. There are protoss, there are the forces of Chaos, and there are a bunch of angry people from 40k-Toyhammer. As I'll move along the chapters, more and more will be explained and schemes will be revealed, and writing skills will be improved.**


	2. Ch2 Meet the Protoss

_**AN: I know it reminds you of Toyhammer's enter the orks chapter, but this is the point when I can slowly begin the introduction of the protoss.**_

Chapter 2

Meet the Protoss

"...how about putting those guns away?" - I asked nervously, fiddling with the emergency pylon. _Man that was annoying. A Baneblade which was known to put a hurt on titans made of METAL and infused by fell powers of the warp, my organic structure wouldn't stand a chance. Plus there are the Leman Russes promising the same with the amount of guns more distributed between each tank, and the Tau vehicles, which once shot __**through a ceiling and an alarm clock. **__So I had all reasons to be scared, yet I wasn't since I knew I could reason with them. In the worst case scenario I could use the emergency pylon to project a plasma shield and get out/into the mess._ Then I decided that I'll just wait, thumb on the shield activation rune, just in case.

The miniatures were still surprised, but after a short discussion between the general and the other leaders, points emphasized by clever use of guns to the forehead, the tanks turned and left me surprisingly without a single execution.

Without the instant threat of guns piercing me I came to the conclusion that _I had no idea whenever they wanted to stay or not. Of course I would not object, but there was the case of the flying..._ "Flying what Mon-keigh? You are truly making me curious." came the voice of the Farseer.

"Farseer Zara get the hell out of there and you'll see." - with that I turned from the shelves to the rest of the forces looking a bit confused about my shouting. - "I have a few of my friends to show you". - And with that I placed the pylon onto the ground. The pyramidal casing opened up, and a blue crystal embraced by a golden ring flew right out of it. It settled about one foot high, and started to glow brightly, shields powering up and the energy matrix extending outwards. With a semi-dramatic sidestep I let the carrier and it's escorts come into the house.

The carriers were the standard space-capable ships of the Protoss Conclave. They were built to withstand the effects of re-entry, and the harsh conditions of space battles. Some were carrying troops, while others were working as weapon-platforms blazing through the innumerable battlefields where they pushed the zerg back. But one feature was common between all the different versions and re-iterations of the carrier battleship: The ability to build and store interceptors. Every carrier had the standard interceptor bays, and had them occupying the same space on the sides.

There was also one similar feature of the Carriers: They were huge.

While a Phoenix was barely larger than a dreadnought, and the Void Ray was about as long as a pen, the Carrier was the size of a heavy wardrobe.

"Let me show you my friends, the Protoss.".

Somewhere in the protoss base Aldaris had a protoss version of a smile. The terran was learning quickly. He already talked his way out of the situation, and made a decent dramatic entryway for the transport carrier _Tempest_. But now it was up to him to get to an agreement.

"Prepare a Gate! I'm warping on the ship". - Said the young warrior. His spirits going high with the prospect of speech for soldiers from the darkest and most unforgiving universe imaginable. He glanced on his Zealot armor, he was still a single warrior of the Khala, but he was also the Executor and acting leader of the protoss expansion on this strange planet... Terra. He was responsible for these people. For all who would come to explore the stars and eventually land in the Korprulu Sector, to begin their prophecied wars against the Zerg...

He was getting carried away. He stepped into the warp gate and soon was greeted by the familiar sight of the carrier's command bridge. He stepped onto an elevated platform and asked: "Can we use their communications?"

"Yes Executor. We decoded every communications systems, and for these eldar people we have turned on the psionic broadcaster." - finishing the report, the protoss equivalent of communications officer turned back to cater his systems: fluctuating charts of the channels he maintained, he was radiating happiness from having a crucial job in helping the first contact from the protoss side.

Aldaris was not radiating of any feeling, all he had was a sizeable bit of apprehension, slowly calmed down after the systems were checked. It was time to step up and introduce the protoss race as one, and prevent war from coming there again. He was not to mess this one up.

"Is there too much stake at here alien?" - came a psionic intrusion from one of the eldar people, _probably the farseer. Doesn't matter_. Aldaris was not someone who would lie to anyone, he was going to let the eldar probe his surface thoughts. _She won't be disappointed._

"Soldiers of the Imperium! Warriors of the Tau Empire! Eldar of the Craftworlds listen to me. I'm Executor Aldaris, former Judicator of the Protoss Conclave. Now I represent and with the aid of our Hierarch David lead my brethren on this planet Terra."

At this point a holographic picture of Aldaris appeared before the gigantic ship.

"One month ago I was leading a joint strike force against the zerg, a ravenous race of aliens bent on consuming everything, and led by a fierce creature of immense psionic power, the Overmind. We were assembled near Shakuras. Carriers filled to the brim, the docks full of shuttles, fighters, bombers, the storages with assorted equipment. We were to defend a backwater planet and to aid the Terrans stationed there.

The image flickered, faded and was soon replaced by a terran marine in a standard combat armor.

"But alas our warp drive failed, we left our course, and the tides that we generated and rode upon imprisoned us, and slammed our fleet to a sun, repeatedly. When we regained consciousness, we were on this planet crash-landed, many of our fellow warriors fallen. This man, Dave, found us and gave us a base of operations. In his tool shed we recuperated, rebuilt and improved upon our weapon designs."

Another shift and the assembled warriors saw the myriad of marvels the protoss created during their brief stay..

"Unfortunately, we had a zerg drone imprisoned in a container we thought was safe. We were carrying it into the Terran research base to implant it with an anti-zerg virus it could spread through the harvested minerals and the creep., but it never got the chance to be infected. We never found the container, we must assume the creature fled to build a hive."

Image shift to a zerg hive cluster being assaulted by protoss warriors.

"This footage was captured on our homeworld Aiur. Where the mighty Tassadar sacrificed himself to destroy the Overmind by crashing his super carrier infused by both the High and Dark templar powers. Nevertheless a hive cluster is a strong obstacle, and it would require the destruction of every hatchery and drone to be sure that it is destroyed."

The battle faded, Aldaris's face returned.

"The zerg are the worst infestation in the galaxy. With a single drone they can rebuild their entire race, and with a planet's worth of biomass they can turn into an unstoppable tide. Now I look everywhere, and see proud warriors, mighty machines, advanced technology and incredible psychic prowess. But each of you hold only little shards of the strength your armies present as a whole. Alone, no matter how advanced, powerful, ancient, blessed or faithful warriors you all are, one can not prevail against an enemy so pragmatic and numerous. We need to unite. Not just band together, while each side holds their beliefs to themselves and would back out as soon as there was an option. But by mind and spirit, one has to be willing to kill, to die for the other. The movements of anyone must be completely fluid in the field of battle, we all must be in perfect harmony to reclaim this world, and maybe find a way to get back to normal scale. Because as a community, as one, we can and we will prevail."

* * *

"But first things first, a small exhibition of warriors, machines, and architecture is in order. Dave already set down the pylon, so that will be easy."

"_This is Aldaris to all protoss forces! Anyone not on guard duty is to warp into the immediate vicinity of the emergency pylon. We have guests."_

"Hey, let me get out of here before... oh not. get off me get off me."

The poor hierarch was surprised with two stalkers on his head trying to decide where the ground was, while he was trying to get away from the arguably long range of the pylon power. He managed to get the two off by laying down, but that didn't help with his trousers.

"No, not there you stupid bastard. AND DONT EVEN THINK OF GOING UP! There are my most intimate areas in that way. Go where you see the light. Go down. NO THE OTHER DOWN. That way."

With that a seemingly dazed third stalker stumbled out from his left trouser legguard, and my hierarch was out of the power zone. Cue one relieved human and the chuckling coming from the imperial guard.

After turning my thoughts away from Dave, I noticed that the humans reacted a little harshly to my people's appearance, with guns pointed forward and nervous looks exchanged in some places. My protoss were reacting the same way: Psionic weapons coming to life, immortals coming to the front, sentries spacing out to cover the soldiers and each other, probes warping photon cannons for added defense, they were equally eager to test their mettle against these newfound adversaries.

* * *

Now while it was a wonder that the guards, space marines, battle sisters and inquisitorial troops didn't shoot my buddies down, it was visibly not a lasting one. And any Hierarch of the Protoss worth his salt would intervene against the unnecessary conflict.

"Stop it! All of you. You crazy bastards. They only came for a friendly meeting you know. They were doing a parade for you."

"B..but they are aliens David." - blurted the bewildered priest.

"Thanks captain obvious" - I snorted back at him. - "Aliens or not, they are our allies and I am their current leader. We are in war preparations against the zerg and we definitely don't need a bunch of xenophobic idiots trying to undermine our effort."

"The Emperor's Finest shall not take this ins.." - Eizak tried to get them out of this, but I would take none of it.

"You damn better shall, because you are not less different to a human than an eldar or a tau, or even a protoss in that matter. And it will only take some time for some inquisition bastards to strip you of your human qualities because you are not human enough. Ordo Hereticus excluded." - now that shut him up, along with the inquisitor who wanted to open his mouth. I buried my face in my palms - "Okay. How about you stay with me for the night? It's a little dangerous out there with the zerglings around."

The army leaders nodded, even the eldar, and I got them around the house, which is thankfully similar to Michael's, with the exception of having a reinforced wooden door protecting the main entrance. Otherwise the Imperium got their usual places on the upper floor, the Tau in the living room, and the eldar got that spare bedroom where they could always watch the shed emanating the blue lights of the protoss. I ended up sitting on the sofa with a mug of tea and watching the first stars to come out. It was a long day in work and I had this whole army problem now.

Aldaris was sitting beside me, himself eyeing the stars, trying to pierce the veil and find Aiur. I have caught him doing it many times before, and never I heard him loosing faith on that. On times where he had a long and tiresome day working on the defenses, he was seething with the hate of the zerg, and that he released them on this world. On other times he reflected on his people's glory, on all the information he could glean off the original carrier's data centers. This time, something else was the matter. _Them._

"So now we got our hands full with the warriors of the 41st millennium haven't we?" - I poked the subject. Not that I needed to tell that, since however weird it seems like _I felt the protoss's thoughts when I was around him_. - "It just made things more complicated."

"Do not let your spirit down on such a small setback. These warriors are powerful and they will aid us when the the time presents itself." - mused the old warrior

"They didn't jump on your call though." - I replied and took a sip from my tea.

"One can not be expected to throw away his preconceptions easily. Yet I sense that they are not sure in themselves. Michael must have been teaching them before how useful cooperation can be. They learned that, but I'm afraid the size difference did more than his speech. And as we know intimidation is not the best way to help somebody to outgrow their childish problems." - at that reply I nodded, and we sat in silence and meditation for at least an hour, then the executor spoke up: "How about we go and meet with..."

"The eldar? Sure" - Again I could tell what he thought, and he couldn't have thought that any better. I picked him up, and we went to see what they did to the bedroom.

**AN: We will soon see some protoss and eldar fun coming, the enemy is revealed, and the story now has some space for escalation. And though I'm not a review obsessed khornate cultist, reviews would help me a lot since this is my first story.**


	3. Ch3 The Elders Meet

_*knock knock*_

I waited a few seconds before slowly opening the door. Whatever the eldar would, they could hide in this time. I was not one to rush them, as Michael's story proved that it was a foolish action.

"H-Hierarch! This is beautiful" - I heard Aldaris let out an imaginary gasp, and I couldn't help but agree with him. The eldar architecture was beautiful almost beyond comprehension, words can barely describe a fraction of it. It is based off curved surfaces, broken up with lines of runes radiating something I could only _feel_. In between the lines, geometrical formations could be seen. They were not made out of runes, instead they looked like they were cast into the surface like some plastic material. - ironic. - In a corner I saw bonesingers bending and shaping the material which seemed to appear out of nowhere. A desk was already made into a landing platform – slight improvement over the toilet -, One half of it was turned into something like a hangar and a tower spire fused together. It must be some sort of control tower.

"Yes. That hangar combined with something like a control tower for example is marvelous."

"Yes you could say that mon'keigh, but it is only a temporary shelter." - chirped in the farseer.

"A shelter? In a heated room? Okay, it's your base I won't interfere." - It was perfectly understandable given the case of one poor miscalibrated warp spider exarch...

"Wh-What? How did you know about that?" - Zara practically choked on these words.

"I read the story. It was detailed in a bonus chapter where the writer left Michael's point of view for a little time."

"Just how much of our story got out?"

"About 28 of the chapters have you in, complete with four bonus episodes, where you are more or less relevant to the episode's plotline."

"And you read it all?"

"Ugh... yes. And it was not just me. A whole lot of people commented on it and the number of people who read it is unknown to me, but I would guess it's high." - I felt sorry for Zara, but on the other hand it was such an interesting read. The beginning was great fun, (Hammer time with tanks) the chaos faction was well introduced along with michael's psychic (or psionic) capabilities, and it escalated into an awesome adventure. "Want to read it tomorrow?"

"Yes, of course I want it. If I get my hands on that author..." she muttered furiously.

_For his sake I hope she won't. And if I can help it she won't._

"Don't ever try to stop me at it." - damn it she went one step too far.

"Cool yourself off Farseer! Do you really think the best way to lead your people is to give in to your childish angers?" - at that point Zara got from very angry to very surprised. - "I think it is not. Look those people were watching it for the fun, and people don't care about the eldar. Actually, nobody cares about what happens to the eldar race in general, so there is no real damage done."

"No real damage? This is disastrous!"

*sigh*"I understand that it hurts your feelings, and possibly most of the other eldar feel offended, but you just have to get yourselves over it." - I slowly turned to the door, Aldaris still in my hands - "Remember that nobody takes that story dead serious and with the zerg threat around I doubt that most of them will survive their assaults." - I let out a deep sigh, the rest of my words are mostly for myself. - "Because the zerg vill eventually grow big, and then..." - I let the words hang in the air as I slowly opened the door and left the room.

I stepped out of my house where the probes rebuilt the pylon that was standing in my study next to my computer. It supposedly helped with the communications. On my way to the shed, Aldaris was staying quiet. It was he psychic sense of being quiet since he had no mouth, and sending telepathic messages was all he could do in terms of communication. More interestingly, he was quiet in my whole affair with the eldar. No words, no thoughts, nothing.

Oh.

"You played the quiet observer didn't you?"

"I had to. You may have not seen it, but one misplaced word, 'heck' - as you would say – even one misplaced _thought_ can end up them trying to kill you, and as you must have seen, I don't possess the impressive size that you do."

We were rounding to the back of my house, stepping on concrete blocks placed in a well-worn path. Thanks to them most of the grass (that I left) recovered from the rather heavy abuse of my boots.

"And what are the fruits of your observations?" - I was interested in the relations between the two highly evolved races. The protoss were technically the eldar in the Starcraft universe, changed to a point where the similarities were few and the differences many.

"They are like a volcano trying to erupt. They have emotions suppressed and the change of scene from one oversized human or 'monkeigh' as they would call you, to an other did not help much. They are arrogant to the core, not one thing that we can easily change. I must warn you that they may try to influence your mind."

We left the house, we were on a rough path to the shed, it's evening lights blinking and the sounds of work slipping out. Bushes were next to the road, some in flowers, as they usually are in this time of the year, some still sprouting leaves.

"Like their seers did with Michael. It was only painful at first, a long-lasting migraine, but it got worse as it worn down his mental defenses. Aldaris I.. have felt strange things since you arrived. I knew what you wanted to say before you told them. Sometimes you _radiated_ your feelings. But how?"

"Dave we rely heavily on our minds to aid us. We use telepathy to send messages to anyone with functional brains. We can also radiate our feelings if we choose to. Anyone who is even mildly receptive can pick up these emissions."

"Does it mean that I'm a psionic?"

"Maybe a little. Your race possesses some potential inherent in the genes, but the probability of having higher power is still slim."

"Slim like miniaturized space soldiers appearing in MY backyard"

Aldaris was tilting his head from one side to an other.

"...And followed up with a full contingent of the grimdarkest soldiers ever imagined in MY house! Damn it in their stories which are to be believed now it is stated clearly that a strong psychic can draw the flow of the immaterium to them."

"Why didn't you tell me these earlier?" - Aldaris was shocked. (his face in disbelief)

"You didn't ask. And it's like they are here for about one hour."

"But we crash landed a month ago, and I didn't notice a psychic next door!" - came the sound realization from the small alien sitting in my hand, and that he slowly buried his face in his hand.

"And how does it change our situation?" - I asked as I tried to suppress my smile. Protoss facepalming was a rare sight and a funny one given their heads' shape.

"Outside of my dignity, not much. The zerg are drawn to psionic entities, but we protoss should be enough to get them here. The only thing they could do to you is to try to infest you."

"Ooff. That's bad."

We arrived to the shed, the former judicator, now fully fledged member of the Templar caste happily jumping down to their landing platform.

I couldn't help but notice a few of the corsair ships along with some arbiters gently sitting on one landing pad.

"That's great. Anyway time for evening patrol. We still need to find where the zerg set up their nest."

"En taro Adun. Executor, Hierarch. My fleet is ready to move out at your command."

"Move out then" - I tried my best 'hope for the best but still sound resolute' voice. - "and if you are successful in your search then show our enemies the might of the Khala!"

At that the carrier and it's escorting vessels moved out under the cloak of both the night, and the overcast cloak of the arbiter. The cheering of the warriors on board ringed in my ears for the minutes to come.


	4. Ch4 Mar Sara

**AN: Huge time skip later...**

Steel floor, neon lights, the continuous humming of the fusion core and the mighty engines… quite the first experience on a Terran _Battlecruiser_. This was David's first contact with humanity native to the Korprulu sector. He was warped in without any combat suit, and was only accompanied with the Ultramarines sergeant Vinters and the protoss Templar Aldaris. Behind him, the graying orange globe of Mar Sara was limply rotating around it's axis, ignoring the zerg that made their home on it's surface so recently.

In front of him was the reason he had advised Aldaris to choose Mar Sara as their first destination. James Raynor, the arch criminal of the Terran Dominion, a man in his early thirties was sitting in the Hyperion's command chair, once "borrowed" from the Sons of Korhal. Dave took a quick glance around: Most of the bridge was surprisingly intact despite their earlier run-in with the zerg xenos, only a couple of lights were being replaced.

The protoss broke the terrans' surprised silence first. "Terran Commander Raynor. I am Executor Aldaris, current leader of the terran-protoss joint battlefleet solar. On the left of me is the leader of their elite forces, the Space Marine sergeant Vinters, and on my right is our diplomat and advisor, David."

"Not to interrupt but weren't you a Judicator last time?" Matt Horner was quick to reply, still standing straight and unfazed in his immaculate captain uniform despite the unusual guests.

"He was, but the circumstances we were in forced him to adapt and take the Executor's role. So far he is performing quite well." said the armored space marine from another reality, chainsword hanging loosely from his armor belt. He was different from the sight people from this sector associated with the word 'marine'. He was as far from the average foul-mouthed sometimes clumsy man in a ridiculously big powered armor who would slap on the female medic's rear when she's done patching him up as he could possibly be. He was well-spoken, and the leader of a ten-man updated assault-tactical hybrid squad that was tasked to accompany Aldaris's mission. Since it all went to warp, he along with a promising but as of yet undistinguished imperial guard captain were guiding and leading the imperial detachment from earth, and technically David was under his command, but he and the two former chaos marines have been quite of an oddity, as they were psykers, and David was also the advisor of the protoss leadership, due to his previous career as a game designer/programmer. So far he couldn't order them but the psyker squad was always eager to follow his instructions to the letter.

David was pretty much the only oddity from the leader trio that entered the hyperion. He was dressed in normal 21th century earth clothing: dust-grey trousers, a blue shirt, and a polyester jacket. His hair was cut short, but was far from having a crew-cut. He was not unarmed however, and carried a small sidearm: A hellpistol in a small belt-holster, and a small dagger on his left side, hanging from his belt, but not loosely.

"Whoa what circumstances? I've been with many protoss in the last two wars and I haven't seen such a thing before." Jim Raynor straightened his back from the slumped position he was in ever since they successfully retreated from Mar Sara.

"It was a... warp accident. Many of my brethren, over half of the fleet had been deposited on a strange green planet that was apparently enormous." The templar calmly replied

"But didn't you die?" Raynor pressed on. He remembered the events quite clearly, and Zeratul had been quite explicit in telling him the events that happened on Shakuras.

"I think I didn't but I'm not sure. We were supposedly helping a terran science station somewhat before in the Antiga system. They apparently found a genetic weapon capable of spreading quickly through zerg ranks and were asking for a couple of drones, and we were all too eager to deliver. I think the station was called 'Amerigo'."

"The Amerigo? Kerrigan took care of it..." Horner recalled the events.

The templar raised his eyebrows. "Ah. We would have expected so much."

"But what happened?" Raynor pushed on.

The protoss templar let out a deep sigh. It was not an experience he wished to remember. "The warp currents pushed us off-course, and even off the supposed time we are in. I'm not going to lie. We crash landed on Earth in the terran year of 2011."

"Earth? You're from Earth?" both Matt and Raynor both stared wide-eyed at the diplomat.

"Indeed we are." It was David to answer, with a ting of pride in his voice. "But it was not all sunshine and cookies. Aldaris' forces were scaled down to the 1/56th scale. I was the only normal sized human for a long time. As you might think It had helped a little in influencing them. For the greater good of course." he chuckled.

"2011? So you're not the UED then right?" Horner queried, as the air around them tensed for a second.

"By the Emperor we are not those traitors." the good sergeant answered a little quicker than the question was asked out.

"So how come you have returned?" The captain asked, putting the pieces together in his head.

The protoss templar slightly lowered his head. Then after a long pause he spoke. "We brought the zerg down on them."

The two rebel leaders gaped.

"It was not our intention of course, but during the crash land the drones we carried escaped. The infection then spread till Earth was crippled and in it's web. Fortunately humanity united against the zerg menace and helped us regain our current form, so we could assist them in their struggle for survival."

Matt Horner was the first one to collect himself. He put his hand under his chin and pondered. "That's an interesting story at least, and thanks for your assistance in helping the commander to hold out." at his mention the Commander of the Hyperion unburied his face from under his hands. "But there is a problem: We've got distress calls from all over the sector. Worlds like this" he pointed at Mar Sara "are being overrun by the zerg swarm. Millitary installations are being pressured simultaneously, the Dominion's forces are divided and unable to respond properly. I've checked the news reports already and things are... gross at best. Billions have died in the initial attack wave and there is more.

Even worse there are reports of Dominion forces pulling out from fringe worlds to the Core worlds. Evacuations have been... slow at best, catastrophic at worst, which is most of the time, and..."

"Hold on Matt, you've compiled them on the way here?" Raynor interrupted the captain.

"Yes sir."

"What are the closest planets we can go to help? I mean which is within our quick-response radius."

To both rebel leaders' surprise it was David to answer their question: "Agria." To their credit they handled this well with a raised eyebrow. From Raynor it was more towards Matt asking for confirmation.

With a nod the captain answered: "Sir, he's correct. The farming colony of Agria is still being overrun. Dominion forces have pulled out way before the attack, but the colony's leader, the scientist Dr. Hanson has been so far successful in keeping the colonists together. They are asking for help." And with a quick tapping on a screen he brought up the video signal the Hyperion intercepted 23 minutes before the successful extraction of the Raiders and their 'liberated' artifact.

A female face ridden with static-bound faculties appeared on the holoscreen. She was young and had a clean face. Uncertainty was written on her expressions, her long brown hair was hurriedly tied up in a ponytail, and through her glasses the effects of sleep deprivation were quite visible below her eyes. She took hurried breaths, and half turned to somewhere off screen for a second, stared, then turned back to the camera and began.

"This is Doctor Ariel Hanson from Agria colony DV-224 to any ships receiving this message. We are under attack. We are just a small farming colony. The dominion abandoned us, and we've got to evacuate before we are overrun." She tapped a button and the signal cut off.

"This is bad." The astartes sergeant observed. "they must be losing pretty badly from the feed. Lord Aldaris how fast can we reach Agria?"

The templar was quick to reply: "From our current position it will take a standard terran hour at most, and half an hour at best. We'd best return to our ships now commander."

"All right. We're going there. Matt, plot our course."

"Right away sir." Meanwhile Aldaris and Vinters vanished from sight in blue flashes.

"And the battlefleet? Are you going to help us?"

"Of course we are. We only warp back to prepare our warp drives, then jump with you." with that David vanished too, and the hurried work at the Hyperion bridge was the only distraction James Raynor had to envelop him.

A protoss strike force and those strange _imperials_ on his side. Perhaps there was hope in the coming fight after all.


End file.
